Newbie needs general debian help

[johnfullerroot]

I have finally managed to get debian onto my Toshiba Portege 2000. The laptop had no OS and does not have a cd drive or floppy drive. So the only way I managed to get it working was to take it into work and PXE/RIS build it with XP SP2 and then run the win32 installer debian.exe. Anyway now that I have it running I need a little guidance to achieve my goals with it. I am trying to do the following:

1. Run it as a webserver
2. Host my phpbb3 forum on it
3. Set it up as a basic mail server for my forum
4. Set it up as a basic samba file server

This is what I intend on using:

1. Apache webserver
2. MySQL and PHP 5
3. No idea what mail server to use
4. Samba

This is what I have installed so far:

1. I selected to install a webserver during the installtion of debian - I think it installed apache
2. It installed some other SQL, then name escapes me but I think it began with a "P" and ended in SQL and I think it was version 7 or something
3. I selected to install a mail server, have no idea which one it installed
4. I selected file server during the install and seem to remeber it mentioning samba so I think I have it installed

So here is what I need help with (appologies for the amount of help I am asking for)

1. Confirmation that what I am trying to do is a) possible b) the correct way of going about it?
2. I know I need to RTM but could you give me a good start by pointing me to the most appropriate manuals?
3. From the # prompt logged in as root how can I:
a) find out whether I have apache, samba etc installed and what versions
b) configure my IP, domain and network settings
c) mount a usb floppy drive
d) uninstall the strange SQL I have and replace it with MySQL
e) check to see if my automatic debian update service is installed and running
f) how to download PHP5 and install it

I should say also that I have not installed the desktop enviroment so there is no X and no WM. Just pure console # debian.

Thanks for all you help. And even if your new too, you might have an answer for at least one bit of my question.

Thanks

John

[johnfullerroot]

uname -a

returns:

Linux portege 2.6.18-5-686 #1 SMP (date & time) UTC 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

ping Google

returns:

64 Bytes from Google (66.102.9.99): icmp_seq=1 ttl=244 time=34.7 ms

This indicates my internet is working. It's a good start.

ifconfig

returns:

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:00:##...
inet address 192.168.1.5 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask: 255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packaets: 952 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets: 301 errors:0 ... " " carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:101944 (99.5KiB) TX Bytes:28207 (27.5 KiB)

lo Link encap: local loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packaets: 306 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets: 306 errors:0 ... " " carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:130543 (127.4 KiB) TX Bytes:130543 (127.4 KiB)

Some more details:

I am in the UK using an ADSL connection through a wireless router. portege (the debian laptop) is connected to the router via a ethernet cable into port 2. I have not yet forwarded the laptops IP to the router. Currently my ISP renews my WAN IP every now and then so I am thinking of asking them to make it static to help me acheive my goal. The other possibilites are the no-ip website or I heard there was a way of getting around the IP changes for free!?

I'll try and provide more information as and when I find out how to display it.

[coopstah13]

the best way I think to see installed packages from the command line is to use aptitude, you can also install new packages, remove them, etc.

you probably have POSTGRESQL installed already.

apt-get install mysql-server libapache2-mod-php5 apache2

This will install the mysql server, apache2 web server, and apache2 php5 module. You probably have samba installed but just to check

apt-get install samba

i prefer to use the command line to search for packages to install you do it this way

apt-cache search <search_term>

additionally you can pipe results to grep for further refinement

[johnfullerroot]

Ok I ran the command:

apt-get install mysql-server libapache2-mod-php5 apache2

but after saying yes to confirm that the 91mb required was ok, I got:

could not connect to ftp.uk.debian.org:80 (1.0.0.0), connection timed out

it then tries security.debian.org:80 but that fails too.

i prefer to use the command line to search for packages to install you do it this way

Code:
apt-cache search <search_term>additionally you can pipe results to grep for further refinement

I presume that would be something like:

apt-cache search php5 | grep

??

[johnfullerroot]

apt-get install samba

returns:

samba is already the newest version


Strange that I can ping ftp.uk.debian.org but can't get the apt-get install command to work

[johnfullerroot]

hmmm, I tried the command again but this time I answered with a capital Y for Yes and it worked!!!????? weird!


ok so now how do I unistall POSTGRESQL? I am almost certain that is what it was called.

Tanks again for all your help.

[coopstah13]

apt-get remove postgresql

[johnfullerroot]

Ok, I managed to get the webserver working. It is now visible to the internet. I have also installed php5, mysql and proftpd, although I havern't tested them yet.

I have also installed sshd for remote administration. I can connect using Putty from within my local LAN using the local IP address for my debian server but I cannot seem to get access externally. I have opened port 22 on my routers virtual server but when I try to connect to my wan IP using Putty, I get Network Error: Connection Refused. Does anyone have any ideas what I am missing?

Thanks again for all your help